Online mentoring, a subset of virtual volunteering,
takes MANY forms, everything from one youth or person matched with one
mentor, to a group of students from one class matched with a group of
mentors from one company for a specific curriculum-based activity. It can
be a program of just a few weeks or one that lasts an entire school or
program year. It may mean an online volunteer sending one or two e-mails a
week, or spending several hours a week reviewing a student's project for
class. It may be email-based or video-based. It can be school-based and
curriculum-focused, or conducted through a nonprofit organization that
serves young professionals.
Note: programs come and go frequently. Programs that
still have information online (not just through
archive.org)
are also provided. Also, we in no way endorse or can speak to the quality
of these programs merely because they are listed here. We will say that
the best programs involving youth are the ones that following the
principles of the
National Mentoring
Partnership. Ask the program if they following that organization's
guidelines - if they have never heard of the partnership, you might want
to look for a different program to model yours after.
Ability OnLine
Support Network
An online community that connects young people with disabilities or
chronic illness to disabled and non-disabled peers and mentors.
Bpeace
a USA-based nonprofit that recruits business professionals to help
entrepreneurs in countries emerging from war, like Rwanda and Afghanistan,
to create and expand businesses and employment (particularly for women).
You will need a particular area of expertise regarding business
development or project management, or know where to recruit American-based
businesses who will host entrepreneurs who travel to the USA for the
program, and pay the annual membership fee, in order to volunteer with
BPEACE online. The work and experience of Bpeace with online volunteers is
noted in
The
Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.
CricketTogether
Cricket Media, an education media company, launched CricketTogether, an
online mentoring platform, in 2017. "Students are paired with employees of
partner companies to read intriguing articles and exchange thoughts about
the content, and life, building one-on-one Virtual Learning Friendships in
a safe, collaborative environment that promotes education equity...
Mentors, especially those who come from the business community, provide
the catalyst to build student literacy, critical thinking, and real world
problem-solving skills, as well as increase student understanding of
careers and the world beyond their classroom." A pilot program to test the
platform was recently completed. Regarding that pilot, "Employees remark
that their student pen pals help them be better parents, friends, and
aunts and uncles. They are more aware of what kids think and how they
express themselves. Employees see their own communications skills enhanced
as they think more deeply about what they’re reading and how to best to
communicate their ideas... " Students in the CricketTogether pilot said
they felt empowered and motivated to push their communication skills to
higher levels in order to engage with the program. One student said, “I
love that I can be honest with my pen pal and tell him my dreams.” Another
commented on the access to remote experts and role models, remarking, “I
like that you get to talk to other people, not just classmates, friends or
family. Sometimes they are even in other states.”
Here
is the press release they released about the program in June 2017.
Cherie
Blair Foundation's Mentoring Women in Business Programme
"We match women in developing and emerging countries with male and female
mentors around the world. Using our online platform, they spend 12 months
working one-on-one to achieve key business goals. Participants build their
business skills and digital literacy through our trainings, and become
part of a global community of committed, ambitious entrepreneurs who are
invested in each other’s success."
Distance Teaching and Mobile
Learning (DTML) is a nonprofit organization that recruits online
volunteer mentors and tutors to help students around the world. The
organization pairs students with pre-vetted mentors for a long-term
partnership and collaborative relationship meant to support students
through adolescence and into adulthood. "The program is designed to
deliver more than just an educational service – mentors and tutors are
equipped to provide personal support when any student is in need." DTML
partners with local institutions and schools for its online mentoring and
tutoring program. As of July 2017, they have just expanded their work into
Uganda and Ethiopia.
Educurious
"We want to make sure that every student benefits from this kind of
connection so they can build networks for the future. The Educurious
Expert Network provides an effective way for professionals to share their
expertise and form online mentoring relationships that engage students in
authentic work and inspire them to stay in school... Experts are
professionals who guide and advise students in their career paths to help
them succeed. A expert's role is to inspire, encourage, and support their
students."
Endapt,
Electronic Networking to Develop Accomplished Professional Teachers.
For experienced teachers working in a U.S. elementary, middle, and/or
secondary school to mentor the next generation of teachers.
icouldbe.org
Meant to connect the energy and expertise of mentors from various
professions with the most vulnerable students in the US educational system
- those that are most at-risk or most in need.
Infinite Family
Brings together South African teens with mentors in the USA for intensive,
long-term, very supportive relationships. The work and experience of
Infinite Family with online volunteers is noted in
The
Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.
IntoBooks
An online mentoring program where students and their adult mentors read
the same books and then discuss them online. It's part of the
ePals
program.
Junior Achievement
still has its traditional, face-to-face, onsite mentoring of young people,
but it also has online mentoring programs since 2014, and drastically
increased this in 2020 because of the global pandemic. They also published
a free guide in 2014 called
Taking
It Digital: New Opportunities for Volunteer Service to show their
strategy for expanding into online mentoring (it notes that it used
The
Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook
and this wiki as a key reference in the development of the strategy). Per
the novel coronavirus pandemic, its online mentoring programs have been
expanded even further.
MicroMentor
Matches small business owners with business mentors. If you want to be a
volunteer mentor, you should have three years of business ownership
experience, or five years of management experience, or several years of
professional experience in a specialized skill, such as marketing, web
site development, accounting, financial planning, etc. The program is part
of
MercyCorps
Read United. Launched by the United Way of the Greater Clarksville
Region and the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System in Tennessee,
a
program designed to enhance early literacy for local elementary school
students by creating opportunities for online volunteers to read
with students virtually over video software. For thirty minutes each week,
volunteers and students will read back and forth to each other using video
conferencing technology. “We hear from many in our community who want to
lend their time and talents to make a difference, but are challenged by
time and location constraints. The program takes away those barriers while
providing a unique learning opportunity to students.” - Ginna Holleman,
local United Way CEO. This program has evolved into the
United
Way / Vello online mentoring program. United Way agencies use the
Vello platform to bring together corporate-based teams of online
volunteers to tutor students in classrooms in their area. A company
sponsors a classroom at a school in its area and forms a volunteer tutor
team to support students at that school. Vello undertakes the background
checks for the volunteers, trains them and provides support. Tutors login
to the classroom schedule and sign up for a 30 min reading session.
Volunteers commit to one session each week. Through the Vello platform,
which provides screen sharing and audio, tutors and students read e-books,
complete comprehension quizzes and write summaries.
Service
Corps Of Retired Executives (SCORE)
A resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration, dedicated
to aiding in the formation, growth and success of small business
nationwide. SCORE offers an online and face-to-face counseling at no cost
(for U.S. citizens and resident aliens only).
Defunct online mentoring / ementoring programs:
For any web site that no longer works, cut and paste the URL into
archive.org,
and you can usually find the complete archived web sites.
Sanchez
Elementary School Online Mentoring Program
This program brought together online mentors from all over the U.S. with
fourth graders at this elementary school in Austin, Texas. Online
activities focused primarily on reading and writing, and on establishing a
positive, trusting relationship between online adult volunteers and the
students. The program also hoped to increase positive feelings about
technology from the point of view of all participants -- students,
teachers, mentors and parents. The project was designed adhering to the
suggestions in the
Virtual
Volunteering Project. The work and experience of this program with
online volunteers is noted in
The
Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.
Telementoring
Young Women in Science, Engineering, and Computing
This was a three-year project in the 1990s by EDC/Center for Children
& Technology and was funded by the National Science Foundation,
Directorate of Education and Human Resources. This project has been
discontinued, but the Web site is still up and includes extensive online
resources for both mentors and teachers.
LifeWorks
E-mentoring
Was an National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored mentoring program for
high school and college students who are interested in behavioral and
social science, biomedical research, and healthcare careers. Through this
program, students are linked via e-mail communication with e-mentors who
provide them with relevant information, guidance and support. A continuous
mentoring commitment of at least eight months is expected from all
participants. Undergraduate and graduate students, university professors,
postdoctoral fellows, independent researchers, and healthcare personnel
are encouraged to consider volunteering to serve as mentors in this
program.
Electronic
Emissary
One of the best known and most respected online tutoring programs, where
adult volunteers helped students in a variety of complex academic-based
projects. The Emissary preferred professionals or retired professionals as
online volunteers, because this was an academically-focused
tutoring
program, not a feel-good mentoring
program. The work and experience of this program with online volunteers
is noted in The
Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook
MentorPlace
Brings employees of IBM and students together in online relationships
focused on academics. You must be an IBM employee to participate.
Also see this
list
of online mentoring programs compiled by the archive of the Virtual
Volunteering Project in the 1990s; most of these programs are now
defunct, but the information is an excellent record of online mentoring
programs over the years. For any web site that no longer works, cut and
paste the URL into
archive.org,
and you can usually find the complete archived web sites
In addition to the guidebook, other sources for guidelines on online
mentoring:
here's how to support this work.
The
Last Virtual
Volunteering Guidebook 